Crowdabilityhttp://www.crowdability.com
Crowdability provides individual investors with education, information and insight into opportunities in the crowdfunding market. Our free website and email newsletter aggregate and organize deals from an ever-expanding universe of crowdfunding platforms.Wed, 13 Dec 2017 15:30:01 +0000en-USCould This Device Crush Apple's Stock Price?http://www.crowdability.com/article/could-this-device-crush-apples-stock-price
http://www.crowdability.com/article/could-this-device-crush-apples-stock-price#disqus_threadhttp://www.crowdability.com/article/could-this-device-crush-apples-stock-priceFri, 08 Dec 2017 11:00:58 +0000This Rolls Royce Could Be Yours for $0.00 A wealthy guy in England is selling his Rolls Royce. It’s worth a jaw-dropping $225,000. And it could be yours…This Rolls Royce Could Be Yours for $0.00

A wealthy guy in England is selling his Rolls Royce. It’s worth a jaw-dropping $225,000. And it could be yours — even if you don’t have a dollar to your name. You see, the owner wants something far more valuable than cash »

Perfect Tech Toys For The Holidays

From an awesome drone that anyone can learn how to fly, to a 360-degree camera, check out this list of 2017’s top tech gifts »

A man in London recently conducted an unusual experiment: he tried to turn a fake restaurant in his backyard into London’s #1-ranked eating establishment. Shockingly, he succeeded. Here’s how he did it »

Could This Device Crush Apple's Stock Price?

The Light L16 is a smartphone containing a record-breaking sixteencameras. It’s been compared to a “Futuristic, Men In Black type weapon… ready to deliver a needling death blow at any moment.” Ready to pull the trigger? »

]]>Bitcoin Billionaireshttp://www.crowdability.com/article/bitcoin-billionaires
http://www.crowdability.com/article/bitcoin-billionaires#disqus_threadhttp://www.crowdability.com/article/bitcoin-billionairesThu, 07 Dec 2017 13:19:56 +0000It’s official — someone has officially become a billionaire by investing in Bitcoin. Actually, it wasn’t just one person, it was two: The Winklevoss…It’s official — someone has officially become a billionaire by investing in Bitcoin.

Actually, it wasn’t just one person, it was two:

The Winklevoss twins.

If you saw the movie The Social Network, you might already be familiar with them.

Allegedly, they came up with the idea for Facebook — and whether that’s true or not, Mark Zuckerberg ended up paying them a multi-million dollar settlement.

Well, as it turns out, the twins took some of that money and invested it very wisely:

They invested it in bitcoin back when it was trading at just $250 — currently it’s trading for about $16,000 — and turned it into more than $1 billion.

That’s the power of getting in on a megatrend early.

With stories like this, many investors are looking for the next crypto-currency that might explode in value.

Most have few employees and fewer profits — in fact, the vast majority don’t even have any revenue coming in the door.

But in most circumstances, for you to consider an investment, the company should have a working product.

We’ve looked at dozens and dozens of ICOs this year, and about 90% of them hadn’t even built a functioning product.

Instead, they had what’s called a “White Paper” — which is just a fancy, techno-jargon filled document describing what the company hopes to build some day.

Many of those companies raised tens of millions of dollars in their ICO, and created highly valuable crypto currencies…

But because they’re based on little more than “smoke and mirrors,” we believe most of these companies will go belly up and leave investors with nothing — just like what happened with the “dot-bomb” companies of the late 90s.

Red Flag #2 — Overseas Ventures

Crypto currencies are independent of any sovereign nation or governmental control.

Because of that, the companies behind them are free to set up operations anywhere in the world.

Many companies will therefore set up in countries that are more tax friendly than the U.S. — and where U.S. financial (and criminal) laws do not apply.

Investing in ICOs where the company is based in a developed country with strong financial regulation is a good sign that it’s looking to build a real business, instead of just running off with your cash.

Red Flag #3: Lies & Omissions

In the U.S., any company raising capital — even the tiniest start-up — is legally bound to disclose all material facts about its business.

If it doesn’t, it can face significant financial and legal penalties.

But because the crypto markets are unregulated by the SEC — and because many of the companies behind them are located abroad — you need to be extremely diligent in your fact-checking and research.

For example, a few months ago, we were looking at an ICO from a Chinese company.

At first blush, it looked very promising:

It had a big, experienced team that’d just won an award for its idea at a major industry conference…

It claimed it had just recruited a top executive from Samsung to join its team…

And because of that executive, it said it had been able to lock down a partnership with Samsung.

But after digging in, we soon noticed some strange signs:

First we realized that the photos the company had taken at the industry event were doctored — this company hadn’t been at the conference at all!

Then we couldn’t find any evidence that the company had recruited the “top Samsung executive.” In fact, this man doesn’t even exist.

Furthermore, no one from Samsung had even heard of this company.

Again, when investing in ICOs, you need to be very, very careful..

So What Should You Do?

We’re not saying you should avoid ICOs entirely…

After all, there are huge gains to be made here.

We’re just alerting you to the fact that you need to be very careful:

First, watch out for the “red flags” we outlined above…

Then, source potential deals from some of the higher-quality ICO platforms that have recently emerged.

For example, if you’re an accredited investor, you can find ICOs on CoinList.com.

CoinList was launched by the team that runs AngelList — one of the top equity crowdfunding platforms in the world. CoinList is based in the U.S., and it has some of the most sophisticated investors in the world pre-vetting ICO opportunities for you.

And if you’re not accredited, you’ll soon be able to find ICOs on a recently-launched site called Republic Crypto.

Republic is part of the AngelList family — and while it doesn’t have any ICOs listed yet, it should soon.

Also, in 2018, we’re planning to recommend a number of ICOs to members of Crowdability.

We’re very excited to keep you posted.

Happy Investing.

]]>Bitcoin Billionaireshttp://www.crowdability.com/article/bitcoin-billionaires
http://www.crowdability.com/article/bitcoin-billionaires#disqus_threadhttp://www.crowdability.com/article/bitcoin-billionairesThu, 07 Dec 2017 13:19:56 +0000It’s official — someone has officially become a billionaire by investing in Bitcoin. Actually, it wasn’t just one person, it was two: The Winklevoss…It’s official — someone has officially become a billionaire by investing in Bitcoin.

Actually, it wasn’t just one person, it was two:

The Winklevoss twins.

If you saw the movie The Social Network, you might already be familiar with them.

Allegedly, they came up with the idea for Facebook — and whether that’s true or not, Mark Zuckerberg ended up paying them a multi-million dollar settlement.

Well, as it turns out, the twins took some of that money and invested it very wisely:

They invested it in bitcoin back when it was trading at just $250 — currently it’s trading for about $16,000 — and turned it into more than $1 billion.

That’s the power of getting in on a megatrend early.

With stories like this, many investors are looking for the next crypto-currency that might explode in value.

Most have few employees and fewer profits — in fact, the vast majority don’t even have any revenue coming in the door.

But in most circumstances, for you to consider an investment, the company should have a working product.

We’ve looked at dozens and dozens of ICOs this year, and about 90% of them hadn’t even built a functioning product.

Instead, they had what’s called a “White Paper” — which is just a fancy, techno-jargon filled document describing what the company hopes to build some day.

Many of those companies raised tens of millions of dollars in their ICO, and created highly valuable crypto currencies…

But because they’re based on little more than “smoke and mirrors,” we believe most of these companies will go belly up and leave investors with nothing — just like what happened with the “dot-bomb” companies of the late 90s.

Red Flag #2 — Overseas Ventures

Crypto currencies are independent of any sovereign nation or governmental control.

Because of that, the companies behind them are free to set up operations anywhere in the world.

Many companies will therefore set up in countries that are more tax friendly than the U.S. — and where U.S. financial (and criminal) laws do not apply.

Investing in ICOs where the company is based in a developed country with strong financial regulation is a good sign that it’s looking to build a real business, instead of just running off with your cash.

Red Flag #3: Lies & Omissions

In the U.S., any company raising capital — even the tiniest start-up — is legally bound to disclose all material facts about its business.

If it doesn’t, it can face significant financial and legal penalties.

But because the crypto markets are unregulated by the SEC — and because many of the companies behind them are located abroad — you need to be extremely diligent in your fact-checking and research.

For example, a few months ago, we were looking at an ICO from a Chinese company.

At first blush, it looked very promising:

It had a big, experienced team that’d just won an award for its idea at a major industry conference…

It claimed it had just recruited a top executive from Samsung to join its team…

And because of that executive, it said it had been able to lock down a partnership with Samsung.

But after digging in, we soon noticed some strange signs:

First we realized that the photos the company had taken at the industry event were doctored — this company hadn’t been at the conference at all!

Then we couldn’t find any evidence that the company had recruited the “top Samsung executive.” In fact, this man doesn’t even exist.

Furthermore, no one from Samsung had even heard of this company.

Again, when investing in ICOs, you need to be very, very careful..

So What Should You Do?

We’re not saying you should avoid ICOs entirely…

After all, there are huge gains to be made here.

We’re just alerting you to the fact that you need to be very careful:

First, watch out for the “red flags” we outlined above…

Then, source potential deals from some of the higher-quality ICO platforms that have recently emerged.

For example, if you’re an accredited investor, you can find ICOs on CoinList.com.

CoinList was launched by the team that runs AngelList — one of the top equity crowdfunding platforms in the world. CoinList is based in the U.S., and it has some of the most sophisticated investors in the world pre-vetting ICO opportunities for you.

And if you’re not accredited, you’ll soon be able to find ICOs on a recently-launched site called Republic Crypto.

Republic is part of the AngelList family — and while it doesn’t have any ICOs listed yet, it should soon.

Also, in 2018, we’re planning to recommend a number of ICOs to members of Crowdability.

We’re very excited to keep you posted.

Happy Investing.

]]>Your Profits: Off to the Races!http://www.crowdability.com/article/your-profits-off-to-the-races
http://www.crowdability.com/article/your-profits-off-to-the-races#disqus_threadhttp://www.crowdability.com/article/your-profits-off-to-the-racesWed, 06 Dec 2017 11:00:41 +0000Don’t know what to get that special someone for the holidays? Not to worry. I’m about to tell you about an insanely unique gift idea. Not only could it…Don’t know what to get that special someone for the holidays?

Not to worry.

I’m about to tell you about an insanely unique gift idea.

Not only could it warm the heart of someone you love…

But it could also put some extra cash in their pocket!

And They’re Off!

To give you a hint about the gift I’m referring to, let me give you a quick history of a sport you may have heard about, but most likely haven’t participated in directly:

I’m talking about horse racing. (You’ll understand why this is relevant in a moment.)

Horse racing is one of the oldest sports in the world.

It goes back at least to the Olympic Games in Greece, around 700 B.C., where “jockeys” would ride in chariots pulled by horses.

Then came Harness racing, where horses would pull a two-wheeled cart called a “sulky.”

And then came modern “Flat” racing, where horses would run around a track, generally with a jockey astride them.

By the mid-1600s, Charles II of England established formal rules for racing — and perhaps even more importantly, he started rewarding the winners with prizes.

Today, horse racing is an enormously popular pastime:

It offers fast-paced action, socializing, cocktails… and of course, betting.

And given that significant money is involved — we’re talking about millions of dollars — it’s not surprising that some folks have turned it into a real business…

Introducing: Little Red Feather

One of those businesses is a California-based Racing Club called the Little Red Feather (LRF).

LRF was established in 2002, and burst onto the scene in 2004, when its horse Singletary won the $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Mile.

In the years since, LRF horses have won 223 races, and raked in $13,571,540 in prize money.

Recently, with a stable that includes Midnight Storm, Chati’s on Top, and Sheer Pleasure, LRF has enjoyed the best 18 months in its history:

43 wins from 192 starts and over $3 million in gross purses.

And now, LRF is giving you (or your special someone) the chance to get in on the action…

The LRF Thoroughbred Fund

You see, LRF is raising $500,000 from investors like you so it can buy up to six new thoroughbreds.

These thoroughbreds will be trained by LRF, then they’ll race at Santa Anita Park and Del Mar, California. They might even make it to the Kentucky Derby.

The minimum investment is $500. In exchange, you’ll own a pro-rata percentage of the Fund, and thus, a pro-rata percentage of each horse.

In addition to equity ownership, investors receive all the perks of being "inside the clubhouse." These perks include box seats to fund races, visits to the horses in their barn, and invitations to partake in morning workouts.

And once you invest, there are no further costs — in other words, you’re not responsible for any of the costs of training, traveling or operations.

More About the Investment

Investors in LFR make money in two ways:

First, they make money if the horses from this fund win races.

And secondly, they make money if, in the future, one of the horses is bought by someone else. (In 2014, for example, LRF sold one of its thoroughbreds, Egg Drop, for $1.9 million.)

When purse monies are earned, or when a horse is sold, funds will be distributed to investors and/or used to acquire additional horses.

Buyer (or Gift Giver) Beware!

Potentially you could make some money here…. but as LRF has explained:

“This is a high risk high reward investment. LRF sold a horse at auction for $1,900,000 that originally cost its partners $95,000. LRF has also purchased a horse that unfortunately never ran.”

So there you have it:

As an investment, this is one of those cases where you might make a few bucks or you might lose a few bucks… but you’ll definitely have a blast.

So if you’re looking for a unique gift for an animal lover — or a gambler — this could be it!

Please note: Crowdability has no relationship with LRF, or with any of the companies or platforms we write about. Crowdability is an independent provider of education, information and research on start-ups and alternative investments.

]]>Time to Short Oil?http://www.crowdability.com/article/time-to-short-oil
http://www.crowdability.com/article/time-to-short-oil#disqus_threadhttp://www.crowdability.com/article/time-to-short-oilFri, 01 Dec 2017 11:00:19 +0000A Cure For Cancer Is Here… If You Qualify Pharmaceutical companies have invested billions of dollars into “Immunotherapy,” a treatment that’s provided…A Cure For Cancer Is Here… If You Qualify

Pharmaceutical companies have invested billions of dollars into “Immunotherapy,” a treatment that’s provided miraculous results to previously incurable cancers. Unfortunately, there’s a hugely frustrating catch: you might not be able to get access to it »

Making Money on the Moon

Fifty years ago, a special Treaty helped prevent nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. But today, as tech moguls start lining up to make billions in outer space, that same Treaty is getting in their way. Why’s it so hard to make money in space? »

[Breaking] New U.S. Fighter Jets To Be Armed with Laser Beams

Earlier this year, the U.S. Army unveiled the most powerful laser ever created. It’s a vehicle-mounted weapon that burns through tanks and shoots missiles out of the sky. Now, the Air Force is getting lasers of its own — and it’s adding them to its fleet of fighter jets »

How A Trip to the Spa Can Save Your Life

Spa treatments like massages and pedicures can leave you feeling relaxed. But did you know they could lower your risk for dementia and heart disease? A “hot” approach to health »

]]>[Chart] Proven System for Earning 55% Annual Returnshttp://www.crowdability.com/article/chart-proven-system-for-earning-55-annual-returns
http://www.crowdability.com/article/chart-proven-system-for-earning-55-annual-returns#disqus_threadhttp://www.crowdability.com/article/chart-proven-system-for-earning-55-annual-returnsThu, 30 Nov 2017 12:30:26 +0000Take a look at this chart… It shows the average returns across every major asset class for the past 20 years — everything from bonds, to large-cap stocks,…Take a look at this chart…

It shows the average returns across every major asset class for the past 20 years — everything from bonds, to large-cap stocks, to various private equity investments.

As you can see, the top-performing asset class has been early-stage venture capital.

Which is why today, we’re going to reveal a proven system that anyone can use to build a portfolio of high-quality early-stage deals…

And hopefully, you’ll use this system to start earning 55% annual returns.

A $6.4 Million Nest Egg

As you can see in the chart, most of the “mainstream” asset classes like bonds and stocks have historically provided low single-digit returns.

Returns that low make it difficult — if not impossible — for an average investor to build real wealth.

For example, take a look at the 20-year return for the Dow Jones Industrial Average — it sits at just about 8% per year.

So if you put $1,000 into the Dow 20 years ago, it would be worth just $4,660 today.

But the average return for early-stage venture capital has been far, far higher — it sits at a staggering 55% per year…

Meaning, if you’d invested just $1,000 into this asset class 20 years ago, you’d now be sitting on more than $6.4 million.

That’s the power of successfully investing in this asset class.

Placing the Right Bets

But here’s the thing…

For most investors — especially individual investors like you — investing in start-up companies is a whole new world…

Where should you start?

How much should you invest?

How do you know which start-ups will succeed and which ones will fail?

Well, this is where Crowdability comes in…

The A.S.E Process

We founded Crowdability to help you answer these questions, and to help you succeed at early-stage investing…

Given the historical returns in this market, we knew plenty of investors like you would want to dive in headfirst…

But we also knew that early-stage investing is risky — and if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can lead to serious losses.

So over the course of the past few years, we’ve worked with some of the top venture capitalists in the country…

Our goal was to help uncover their processes for:

Identifying the most promising early-stage companies…

Reducing risk.

And what we ultimately developed is a dead simple system — a system anyone can learn and use — to help maximize your upside potential while reducing your risk.

It’s something we call the A.S.E. Process.

Each letter stands for a different step. And I’ll briefly walk you through each one right now.

Step #1 — “A” is for “Allocate”

This first step helps you determine how much of your total investment portfolio to put into early-stage deals, and how much capital to put into each deal.

You see, investing in early-stage private companies is a higher-risk, higher-return opportunity than more traditional investing.

Therefore, you should only be investing a small portion of your overall portfolio into it.

Professionals recommend investing a maximum of 5% to 10% of your investable assets into early-stage companies. And even less than that if you’re retired or living on a fixed income.

For example, let’s say you decide to invest 10% of your assets into early-stage deals. So if you have a portfolio worth $100,000, you’d allocate $10,000 to early-stage investments.

However, to be clear, that doesn’t mean you should invest $10,000 into a single deal.

The professionals we spoke with believe that to be “diversified,” investors should build a portfolio of at least 25 to 50 early-stage deals.

So, continuing the example from above, if you plan to invest $10,000 into your early-stage portfolio, you should invest $200 to $400 into each deal.

This way, even if a handful of them don’t work out, you won’t lose significant capital.

Once you have your asset allocation plan locked in, you’ll be ready to move onto the second step…

Step #2 — “S” is for “Screen”

This step helps you take the hundreds of early-stage deals out there, and quickly filter them down to a small handful that you’ll dive into more deeply in Step 3.

For this step, we look at key criteria to help us quickly eliminate the riskiest investments.

For example, we tend to screen out companies that have high valuations.

“Valuation” is just another word for market cap.

And when it comes to early-stage companies, you should avoid investing at valuations over $10 million.

In fact, we set our sights on companies that are valued at $5 million or less.

You see, the majority of M&A deals in the early-stage market occur at $50 million or less.

Therefore, by investing at valuations of $5 million or less, you’ll give yourself the best possible chances of cashing out for a significant return.

That’s just one of the many screening criteria we use before moving onto our final step…

Step #3 — “E” is for “Evaluate”

This step is where you do a deep dive into each deal, looking for certain attributes that, statistically speaking, winners tend to share.

For example, studies have shown that start-ups that have more than one founder grow 3.6 times faster than start-ups with just one founder.

Other research has proven that start-ups backed by professional venture capitalists are 66% more likely to succeed than companies that are backed only by individual investors.

Those two indicators are just a small sample of the different criteria we analyze.

In total, before we make an investment, we look at 24 different data points and indicators.

This is one of the secrets to successful early-stage investing…

By following a strict quantitativeapproach to making investment decisions, you’ll put yourself in a far better position to earn higher returns.

Follow the Numbers

To show you what I mean, take a look at Fred Wilson…

Fred is one of the most successful venture investors in the world.

He’s the founder of Union Square Ventures, a firm that’s backed multiple billion-dollar start-up success stories just when they were just getting off the ground.

For example, Fred was an early investor in companies like Twitter, Tumblr and LendingClub. Each one was worth just a few million dollars when Fred got involved — today they’re each worth billions.

Fred recently published a blog post about the merits (and the profits) of taking a quantitative approach to early-stage investing. You can read it here.

This quantitative approach to investing makes sense when evaluating start-ups…

You see, when a company is just getting started, it has almost no operating history.

It generally won’t have any sales or profits…

In fact, many times, the company won’t even have a final product developed yet.

So you can’t use a traditional analysis to evaluate it.

That’s why many of the best early-stage venture investors rely on a quantitative approach like the one we use at Crowdability.

By sticking to the numbers, you can put your money behind companies with the highest probability of working out.

And by properly diversifying your investments, you can also protect your downside.

Happy investing.

]]>[Chart] Proven System for Earning 55% Annual Returnshttp://www.crowdability.com/article/chart-proven-system-for-earning-55-annual-returns
http://www.crowdability.com/article/chart-proven-system-for-earning-55-annual-returns#disqus_threadhttp://www.crowdability.com/article/chart-proven-system-for-earning-55-annual-returnsThu, 30 Nov 2017 12:30:26 +0000Take a look at this chart… It shows the average returns across every major asset class for the past 20 years — everything from bonds, to large-cap stocks,…Take a look at this chart…

It shows the average returns across every major asset class for the past 20 years — everything from bonds, to large-cap stocks, to various private equity investments.

As you can see, the top-performing asset class has been early-stage venture capital.

Which is why today, we’re going to reveal a proven system that anyone can use to build a portfolio of high-quality early-stage deals…

And hopefully, you’ll use this system to start earning 55% annual returns.

A $6.4 Million Nest Egg

As you can see in the chart, most of the “mainstream” asset classes like bonds and stocks have historically provided low single-digit returns.

Returns that low make it difficult — if not impossible — for an average investor to build real wealth.

For example, take a look at the 20-year return for the Dow Jones Industrial Average — it sits at just about 8% per year.

So if you put $1,000 into the Dow 20 years ago, it would be worth just $4,660 today.

But the average return for early-stage venture capital has been far, far higher — it sits at a staggering 55% per year…

Meaning, if you’d invested just $1,000 into this asset class 20 years ago, you’d now be sitting on more than $6.4 million.

That’s the power of successfully investing in this asset class.

Placing the Right Bets

But here’s the thing…

For most investors — especially individual investors like you — investing in start-up companies is a whole new world…

Where should you start?

How much should you invest?

How do you know which start-ups will succeed and which ones will fail?

Well, this is where Crowdability comes in…

The A.S.E Process

We founded Crowdability to help you answer these questions, and to help you succeed at early-stage investing…

Given the historical returns in this market, we knew plenty of investors like you would want to dive in headfirst…

But we also knew that early-stage investing is risky — and if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can lead to serious losses.

So over the course of the past few years, we’ve worked with some of the top venture capitalists in the country…

Our goal was to help uncover their processes for:

Identifying the most promising early-stage companies…

Reducing risk.

And what we ultimately developed is a dead simple system — a system anyone can learn and use — to help maximize your upside potential while reducing your risk.

It’s something we call the A.S.E. Process.

Each letter stands for a different step. And I’ll briefly walk you through each one right now.

Step #1 — “A” is for “Allocate”

This first step helps you determine how much of your total investment portfolio to put into early-stage deals, and how much capital to put into each deal.

You see, investing in early-stage private companies is a higher-risk, higher-return opportunity than more traditional investing.

Therefore, you should only be investing a small portion of your overall portfolio into it.

Professionals recommend investing a maximum of 5% to 10% of your investable assets into early-stage companies. And even less than that if you’re retired or living on a fixed income.

For example, let’s say you decide to invest 10% of your assets into early-stage deals. So if you have a portfolio worth $100,000, you’d allocate $10,000 to early-stage investments.

However, to be clear, that doesn’t mean you should invest $10,000 into a single deal.

The professionals we spoke with believe that to be “diversified,” investors should build a portfolio of at least 25 to 50 early-stage deals.

So, continuing the example from above, if you plan to invest $10,000 into your early-stage portfolio, you should invest $200 to $400 into each deal.

This way, even if a handful of them don’t work out, you won’t lose significant capital.

Once you have your asset allocation plan locked in, you’ll be ready to move onto the second step…

Step #2 — “S” is for “Screen”

This step helps you take the hundreds of early-stage deals out there, and quickly filter them down to a small handful that you’ll dive into more deeply in Step 3.

For this step, we look at key criteria to help us quickly eliminate the riskiest investments.

For example, we tend to screen out companies that have high valuations.

“Valuation” is just another word for market cap.

And when it comes to early-stage companies, you should avoid investing at valuations over $10 million.

In fact, we set our sights on companies that are valued at $5 million or less.

You see, the majority of M&A deals in the early-stage market occur at $50 million or less.

Therefore, by investing at valuations of $5 million or less, you’ll give yourself the best possible chances of cashing out for a significant return.

That’s just one of the many screening criteria we use before moving onto our final step…

Step #3 — “E” is for “Evaluate”

This step is where you do a deep dive into each deal, looking for certain attributes that, statistically speaking, winners tend to share.

For example, studies have shown that start-ups that have more than one founder grow 3.6 times faster than start-ups with just one founder.

Other research has proven that start-ups backed by professional venture capitalists are 66% more likely to succeed than companies that are backed only by individual investors.

Those two indicators are just a small sample of the different criteria we analyze.

In total, before we make an investment, we look at 24 different data points and indicators.

This is one of the secrets to successful early-stage investing…

By following a strict quantitativeapproach to making investment decisions, you’ll put yourself in a far better position to earn higher returns.

Follow the Numbers

To show you what I mean, take a look at Fred Wilson…

Fred is one of the most successful venture investors in the world.

He’s the founder of Union Square Ventures, a firm that’s backed multiple billion-dollar start-up success stories just when they were just getting off the ground.

For example, Fred was an early investor in companies like Twitter, Tumblr and LendingClub. Each one was worth just a few million dollars when Fred got involved — today they’re each worth billions.

Fred recently published a blog post about the merits (and the profits) of taking a quantitative approach to early-stage investing. You can read it here.

This quantitative approach to investing makes sense when evaluating start-ups…

You see, when a company is just getting started, it has almost no operating history.

It generally won’t have any sales or profits…

In fact, many times, the company won’t even have a final product developed yet.

So you can’t use a traditional analysis to evaluate it.

That’s why many of the best early-stage venture investors rely on a quantitative approach like the one we use at Crowdability.

By sticking to the numbers, you can put your money behind companies with the highest probability of working out.

And by properly diversifying your investments, you can also protect your downside.

Happy investing.

]]>This Start-up Built a "Time Machine"http://www.crowdability.com/article/this-start-up-built-a-time-machine
http://www.crowdability.com/article/this-start-up-built-a-time-machine#disqus_threadhttp://www.crowdability.com/article/this-start-up-built-a-time-machineWed, 29 Nov 2017 11:00:34 +0000If you could travel back in time, what would you do? I’d go hear Jimi Hendrix play live… Then I’d stop by Wrigley Field for the 1932 World Series and…If you could travel back in time, what would you do?

I’d go hear Jimi Hendrix play live…

Then I’d stop by Wrigley Field for the 1932 World Series and wait for one of Babe Ruth’s most famous homeruns…

Then I’d sit at the southern tip of Manhattan and take a good long look at the Twin Towers.

Most of us dream about time travel, but we assume it’s impossible…

We figure it’s strictly the stuff of science fiction, or old Michael J. Fox movies.

But recently, a tiny technology start-up based in California has cracked the code:

It’s created a time-travel machine that actually works.

Today I'll tell you about it — then I’ll show you how you could profit from it.

Just Like Being There

But first, a caveat:

The type of time travel we’ll be exploring today isn’t what sci-fi writers or Marty McFly had in mind.

Instead, it’s a form of time travel enabled by a technology you might already be familiar with…

I’m talking about Virtual Reality.

Virtual Reality (or just “VR” for short) is a computer-generated simulation of a 3D environment.

Just put on a special helmet with a screen inside — and you can instantly be transported to another time and place.

For example, here’s a picture of someone using a VR headset called the Oculus Rift:

As you can see, this user is amazed. He’s fully engaged in the virtual world he’s experiencing.

Unfortunately, Oculus is expensive, and it still isn’t ready for mainstream use.

But we recently discovered a VR technology that’s easy enough — and affordable enough — for anyone to dive into…

Introducing Owlized

It’s called Owlized.

Owlized is a California-based start-up using VR to enable virtual time travel.

Basically, it’s created the world’s first outdoor VR kiosk.

Its kiosk is called “OWL VR,” and it looks similar to the old coin-operated viewing stations you can find at the top of the Empire State Building.

After you pay between $3 to $5 to unlock it and start moving it from side to side and up and down, instead of seeing your environment as it looks currently, you see a 3D “time travel” image of how it looked in the past.

It’s like you're standing in the exact same spot, but 100 years ago.

For example, imagine that you’re visiting San Francisco…

After unlocking the OWL VR, you look towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

You know the bridge is right there — you can see it in the upper right of this picture:

But as you can see in the image below, as you start moving the device, the bridge disappears…

It disappears because you’re traveling back in time one hundred years — the bridge hasn’t been constructed yet!

And now Owlized is creating time-travel experiences like this at some of the most popular destinations on Earth.

The Opportunity

To start, Owlized is going after cities, parks, tourist attractions and historic sites.

This is estimated to be a $4 billion addressable market.

This is a big opportunity for Owlized — and potentially a big opportunity for tourist destinations.

You see, Owlized believes that its patent-pending kiosks will help tourist destinations attract new customers…

And since the destinations share in the revenue from the devices, they have a very good reason to give it a shot.

Quick Progress

Owlized might be onto something:

It quickly locked down contracts with the City of San Francisco, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, and the City of Santa Monica…

It’s attracting national press including NPR and Fast Company.

And it’s already brought in about $450,000 in sales…

All that being said, this is a risky new venture, and it could face challenges.

For example:

Obsolescence — With all the innovation that’s happening in VR right now, Owlized could quickly be overtaken by a competitor.

Content Creation Challenges — To create 3D videos for its kiosks, Owlized relies on content partners. It doesn’t pay them upfront; instead, it shares its revenues with them. If revenues are light, these partners might quit.

Hardware is Risky — As we often point out, hardware-based start-ups can be riskier than digital businesses because of their high operating costs.

But if these risks don’t scare you off, here’s some news:

Owlized just opened a $1 million investment round, and all investors are welcome to participate. The minimum investment is just $50.

Just remember: investing in start-ups is risky, so you need to do your research!

Happy Investing

Please note: Crowdability has no relationship with Owlized, or with any of the companies or platforms we write about. Crowdability is an independent provider of education, information and research on start-ups and alternative investments.

]]>Tell Mike To Get a Vasectomy!http://www.crowdability.com/article/tell-mike-to-get-a-vasectomy
http://www.crowdability.com/article/tell-mike-to-get-a-vasectomy#disqus_threadhttp://www.crowdability.com/article/tell-mike-to-get-a-vasectomyFri, 24 Nov 2017 11:00:58 +0000[VIDEO] 0 To 60 in 1.9 Seconds… Move over, Ferrari. See you later, Lamborghini. It’s time for Tesla’s new Roadster 2 to take the spotlight. Want to see…[VIDEO] 0 To 60 in 1.9 Seconds…

Move over, Ferrari. See you later, Lamborghini. It’s time for Tesla’s new Roadster 2 to take the spotlight. Want to see how it feels inside the cockpit of the fastest production car ever? Check it out right here »

These Silicon Valley Execs Are Hooked On LSD

In the 1960s and 70s, LSD was a popular drug for hippies and stoners. How times have changed: today, it’s being used by some of Silicon Valley’s top minds. Click here to find out why »

Mark Cuban Used To Sleep In A Closet

In their 20s, these men worked as nannies, slept in closets, and got rejected for entry-level jobs at KFC. Today, they’re billionaires. This is the story of how they got there »

30-year-old Mike Merrill has agreed to let strangers make every decision in his life — from which women he should date, to whether he should get a vasectomy. Mike’s not indecisive. He’s just following orders from his shareholders »

]]>This common condition could be killing you...http://www.crowdability.com/article/this-common-condition-could-be-killing-you
http://www.crowdability.com/article/this-common-condition-could-be-killing-you#disqus_threadhttp://www.crowdability.com/article/this-common-condition-could-be-killing-youWed, 22 Nov 2017 11:00:38 +0000On my flight home from California a few weeks ago, I struck up a conversation with a friendly, bearded guy sitting next to me. He was very talkative — until…On my flight home from California a few weeks ago, I struck up a conversation with a friendly, bearded guy sitting next to me.

He was very talkative — until he had a few beers and fell asleep.

Then he started snoring, choking, and gasping for air, which attracted the attention of everyone within a few rows of us.

For those of us sitting near him, this was a minor annoyance.

But as he explained to me when he woke up, these were symptoms of a deadly disease.

In the article you’re about to read, I’ll tell you more about this disease…

Then I’ll show you how you could potentially profit from it.

Sleep Apnea

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a surprisingly common medical condition.

It affects as many as 100 million people worldwide.

As I learned on my flight home, the most frequent symptoms are snoring, choking, and gasping for air when asleep, and sleepiness when awake.

If left untreated, sleep apnea can contribute to serious health problems including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, memory loss, and even cancer.

Current Treatments

Here’s the standard treatment for OSA:

It’s called a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) device.

The CPAP machine increases air pressure in your throat so your airways don’t collapse when you breathe.

This device can be effective at treating the symptoms of sleep apnea. Basically, by preventing your airways from collapsing, this device stops you from snoring.

But as you might have gathered from looking at the image above, it can be extraordinarily uncomfortable and inconvenient to use — which helps explain why about 80% of patients abandon it in less than a year.

A New Solution

But now a new start-up has devised a better solution.

It’s a lightweight high-tech device you can attach to your nose. There are no masks, hoses or cords, no power wires, and no noisy hum.

It's called Airing, and here’s what it looks like:

Amazingly, this is a single-use device (meaning, you’d use a new one every night), and it’s projected to cost consumers just $3.00.

And since it’s single-use, there’s no need to clean it or charge it.

Airing has built an early prototype — and it’s already striking a nerve.

For example:

Airing raised $1.9 million from 20,000 contributors on Indiegogo, making it one of the top-grossing crowdfunding campaigns for a medical device…

The company has attracted 8 million visitors to its website, and its product videos have attracted 55 million views…

And it’s secured a strategic relationship with a major manufacturer to help bring its product to market commercially.

But now, to fund efforts to build its final product, it’s raising a new investment round.

Which is where you come in…

Airing’s New Funding Round

Airing is currently raising $1.07 million from investors like you.

The minimum investment is $250.

With 100 million people suffering from sleep apnea, this is a huge opportunity…

And certainly, Airing has already made significant progress.

But there are major risks here, too. For example:

Product Risk — Airing still needs to figure out how to build one of the key components of its device: a “micro-blower” that can blow air. If it’s unable to pull this off, the company might fail.

FDA Approval — Since the original CPAP device already received FDA approval, and the Airing simply improves upon the CPAP, it believes approval might be “accelerated.” But there are no guarantees.

Hardware is Risky — Start-ups like Airing that build physical devices have relatively higher operating costs than software companies — and this makes them riskier. While hardware companies can (and do) become successful, statistically speaking, their lack of capital efficiency correlates to a higher risk of going out of business.

Breathe Easy

As you just learned, Airing is a high-risk, high-potential investment.

But if it works, this breathing device could be a game-changer for sufferers of sleep apnea…

Please note: Crowdability has no relationship with Airing, or with any of the companies or platforms we write about. Crowdability is an independent provider of education, information and research on start-ups and alternative investments.